Carnival of Colors in the OH+5 Exhibit

"Carnival of Colors", 19.5" x 19.5"

My art quilt "Carnival of Colors" is in the exhibit OH+5 2012. The exhibit features all mediums and artists from Ohio and the five surrounding states (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan). 

The show takes place at the Dairy Barn Arts Center located at 8000 Dairy Barn Lane in Athens, Ohio and runs from January 13 through March 10.  There will be an artist reception this Friday, January 6 from 5 to 7 pm. The Dairy Barn Art Center is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from noon to 5 pm, Sundays from 1 to 5 pm and is open until 8 pm on Thursdays. There is a $5 admission.

I made "Carnival of Colors" last year as one of the Project Quilting challenges. You can read more about how I made the quilt here.  The Dairy Barn is where the Quilt National exhibit is held every other year. To read more about my visit to Quilt National 2009 and Quilt National 2011, click here.

Custom T-Shirt Keepsake Quilts

I've recently made several custom quilts using T-shirts. Most of them are throw-sized quilts, usually between 40"-48" x 70"-85" depending on the number of shirts. All of the shirts are backed with interfacing to keep them from stretching out of shape when they are sewn. I like to add a solid-color sashing fabric between the shirts so the shirts are separated from each other. The borders and vertical sashing are also a solid color (or a mostly solid).

With the exception of the first quilt, all of the quilts were purchased by mothers whose kids have moved out of the house but left several items behind with requests to "don't get rid of my T-shirts." And all but one of them were given as gifts for either graduation, Christmas, birthdays, or Hanukkah.

This quilt has 16 T-shirts with medium blue horizontal sashing and darker blue vertical sashing and borders. This quilt was made for a woman as a graduation gift from her friends. 

I asked her friend how they got the shirts from the woman without her noticing and her friend told me that these aren't actually her shirts, instead all of her friends donated one or two of their shirts. Good idea!

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This quilt has 17 T-shirts on the front and one on the back (plus part of a pair of sweat pants). One of the shirt had people running that went all the way around the shirt so that is in the middle of the quilt going all the way across. 

The sashing above and below the runners is purple and the sashing and borders on the rest of the quilt are blue.

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This quilt has 20 shirts. It has grayish-purple horizontal sashing and dark green vertical sashing and borders.

This "square" that is counted as one of the shirts on the quilt above is made of four smaller "patches" of logos that were on the sleeves or breast pocket.

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This quilt has 19 shirts on the front and three on the back and includes T-shirts and also sports jerseys. I figure that if you can wash the shirt in a washing machine and dry it in a dryer then it can be used in a quilt, although sweatshirts don't work very well. Also, any shirts that have a lot of wear will be the weakest links when it comes to caring for your quilt.

This quilt has 22 shirts and includes T-shirts and also sports jerseys. Since this quilt had a lot of jerseys and sport shirts, I used green for the sashing and borders since many sports are played on green fields.

When I quilt a T-shirt quilt I like to quilt inside each shirt 1/4" from the edge and also approximately 1/4" around the image on the shirt, using thread that is the same color as the shirt. Then I quilt 1/4" inside all of the sashing and binding.

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This quilt contains 60 T-shirts, 2 dress parts, 2 leotards, 1 pant leg, 1 sweater sleeve, part of a fleece blanket and 10 patches. Some of the patches are actual patches and others are smaller logos from other shirts that were appliqued on to some of the shirts. 

It was a gift for a young girl on her 13th birthday. Because the shirts were from when she was younger, they were pretty small so I was able to arrange them in a grid with the smaller shirts on the edges and getting larger as they moved to the center of the quilt.

Since there were so many shirts (and other articles of clothing) this became a double-sided quilt. I aligned the purple sashing and borders so when I quilted to two parts together the sashing would line up. When it was all finished it measured 54" x 86".

For information about purchasing a custom T-shirt memory keepsake quilt using your T-shirts, visit https://www.etsy.com/shop/PamGeiselArtQuilts?section_id=23768861

Keepsake Quilts Made With Kids Clothing

 

"Baby Boy Blue", 31" x 25" 

I've made several T-shirt quilts and was thinking about making some quilts using baby and kids clothing. Since I don't have kids I asked my sister if she had some clothes that her kids have outgrown. I don't think I told her what I was going to do with them. 

 

So I made some samples quilts. I made one using 6 pieces of clothing her son wore. Just like his Daddy he wore lots of polo shirts and seemed to favor a blue and yellow color combination. I quilted over the shirts but I made sure that all of the pockets were left accessible.

"Sweet Pea", 27" x 32"

The pink one had 6 pieces of clothes her daughter had worn. The four shirts, the light purple row under "Big Sister" was from a pant leg and the wide strip in the middle with the flowers and cherries was the bottom of a dress that my sister loved.

Most of the embroidered parts were already on the clothing. I did cut out a few fun pieces that were on the sleeves and made them into patches that were appliqued in other places. 

 

"I've Been Very, Very Good", 25" x 25"

And there were even a few pieces of clothing that both kids wore for Christmas, so I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas-themed quilt.

With some of the tops that had snaps I left them so the snaps could be opened and left a secret message inside.

So guess what I gave my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas this year? Three quilts made with the clothes their kids had worn.

Like the T-shirt quilts, all the clothing was stabilized before it was cut and pieced together. The borders and bindings were made with cotton fabrics and pieced by machine. The quilts were machine quilted and all have hanging sleeves.

Found Art / Found Objects

I've always been a little confused by the term "found art" or "found object" as part of the description of materials used in a quilt. I love to embellish my quilts and have often used items that others might describe as "found objects." Do they still count as a 'found object' if I got the item from my "possible art supplies stash" or bought the item at a store?

According to the traditional definition, found objects used in art are "objects which has not been designed for an artistic purpose, but which exists for another purpose."

So the drain cover in "After the Rain" is a found object, as is the barbed wire I made to use in the "Blue Bird" quilt in the Feather series, and also the key I used in "not even the rain: a love poem."

And the photo of the little Santa? Found it in a book that was checked out from the library. I have no idea who drew it but it would be the literal definition of "found art."

Hope your holidays are filled with surprises and maybe even found art.

Fiber and Clay Holiday Sale and Open House

This weekend I'm participating in a Holiday Sale with my friend Lisa Goldberg at her studio. We'll be open Sat., Dec. 3 from 1-4 pm and Lisa's studio is located at 4619 Meredith Road in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Lisa makes beautiful hand-built functional ceramics that can be used in daily life and also creates mixed media masks that are often embellished with found objects. She fires her ceramics in a soda-kiln located on her property. To see more of her work, visit her website.

Glen Helen Nature Arts & Crafts Show this weekend

"Covered Bridge" the last available quilt
from the Glen Helen Series of six art quilts 

The Glen Helen Association's Annual Nature Arts & Crafts Show is this coming Saturday, November 19 from 9 am-5 pm and Sunday, November 20 from 11 am-5 pm. It's at the Glen Helen Building, 405 Corry St., in Yellow Springs.

The show is a fund-raising event for Glen Helen, a 1,000 acre nature preserve located in Yellow Springs, Ohio and owned by Antioch College. This is the 30th year for the event which features nature-related art and fine crafts made by local and regional artisans including photography, watercolor and oil paintings, jewelry, stained glass, fiber arts, pottery, sculpture, and many other wonderful items.

The $4 admission fee goes to Glen programs. There is a coupon for $2 off the admission on the website and you can see a list of all of this year's artists including photos of their work on the Glen Helen's website.

Dalmatian Specialty Wine Glass Coasters

Recently I was contacted by someone who works at a pet obedience school and they were hosting a Dalmatian Specialty event and wanted something to give to the participants (the people, not the dogs). 

They decided they wanted some wine glass coasters in black and white and dog related. I found the bone and paw print fabrics on-line and paired them with some black spots on white and white spots on black. Pretty cute!